A project started in 2019 to restore key buildings used by the first Black Marines — and protect the structures from the effects of climate change — is nearly complete.
During the 1940s, about 20,000 men trained under harsh conditions on a racially segregated base in North Carolina known as Montford Point .It’s now part of Camp Lejeune — the main Marine Corps infantry base for the East Coast — and is called Camp Johnson after one of those first Black marines, Sgt. Maj. Gilbert “Hashmark” Johnson, a storied drill instructor.
The men who made the buildings worth saving are nearly gone. But a handful of the 300 or so surviving Montford Point Marines came back in late April for the reopening of the freshly-restored museum honoring them, in what was once their mess hall.
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